Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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a traditional fairy tale: nasty and unfair

Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir

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A princess, a tower, a witch, a fairy- you know this story, right? If you are well-versed in the nasty beginnings of most beloved fairy tales, then probably yes. If you are familiar with the delightfully cracked work of Tamsyn Muir then also, yes. If you are coming in seeing a blonde princess in a tower and thinking Disney, then absolutely not! Princess Floralinda is your traditional princess: beautiful, naïve, and imprisoned in a tower. She was put up there by a witch; and while […]

Don’t you hate it when you’ve hit the ripe old age of 29 and have experienced all the world has to offer, so you rip a hole in reality so you can cavort with pain demons just for a change of pace?

Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker

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(Trigger warnings for various unsavoriness.) I like my horror with a heaping helping of cheese (Slither, Night of the Comet, Cabin in the Woods), so I have never read any Clive Barker, and I’ve never seen Hellraiser. So when my sci-fi library book club picked Hellbound Heart, the book the movie Hellraiser is based on, I was not sure what to expect. I mean, I was expecting gross stuff and a guy with pins in his face, but I was not expecting such unlikeable characters. […]

rain, rain, go away

Summerwater by Sarah Moss

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Is there anyone who isn’t at least slightly maddened by days and days on rain? I’ve spent many summers working outdoors under mostly temporary cover. It’s been years, but I vividly remember the feeling of perpetually wet socks and bones that felt internally chilled. In the summer of 2008, when I was working as an adventure guide at a camp in the White Mountains, it rained 29 days in June and 30 days in July. We ran out of “rainy day” activities less than a […]

A masterclass in the novella; body horror and racism collide.

Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark

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We know that the people who join the Ku Klux Klan are monsters. Average people who act in monstrous, horrible ways. But what if some of the Klan members were actual monsters? Giant, hulking, dog-like beasts that want to consume and destroy Black people? Such is the premise of Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark. Maryse, a Black woman, hunts these monsters in Prohibition America with the help of her magical sword infused with the anger, pain, and despair of Black men and women of […]

A very put-down-able novella

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

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Amanda, a young woman, lies in a hospital. We don’t know how she got there, or what’s wrong with her. Sitting on her bed is a young boy, David, who is not her son, but who nonetheless seems to know a lot about her. David is urging Amanda to tell her story, to be observant, but to be quick, as she doesn’t have much time left. What follows is a somewhat suspenseful story that touches on a few interesting themes, including parenthood, but ultimately doesn’t […]



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